Venezuela launches multi-billion-dollar gas project

Venezuela's state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) announced it had set up a joint venture with Argentinean, Portuguese, US and Japanese firms to tap offshore natural gas fields.
The venture will develop an estimated 28.8 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves in the off-shore Deltana platform and Paria Gulf, with marketing plans targeted to begin in 2014.
The 19.65 billion dollar project includes building two trains, or production units, for liquefied natural gas (LNG), each with a projected annual yield of 4.7 million tonnes, as well as offshore extraction and pumping facilities.

The mixed-capital joint venture brings together Venezuela's PDVSA, Portugal's Galp Energia, US Chevron and Global Technology Services, Argentina's Energia Argentina and Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui and Itochu Corporation.
PDVSA will have a 60 percent stake in the joint venture, the company said in a statement.
"We have all the companies' commitment to maintain the project, to make investments for the development of basic engineering, that we hope will be completed in 2009, for a total of 200 million dollars," said Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez in the statement.
PDVSA vice president for exploration and production Eulogio del Pino said the initiative shows the "trust" placed in Venezuela, adding that it will "supply gas throughout the Caribbean, South America and premium markets in Europe and Southeast Asia."
The joint venture will be tasked with designing, building and operating the LNG trains, as well as the gas pipelines that will feed factories in the industrial complex Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, at Guira, in the northeastern state of Sucre.

The project is part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's strategy called the "Great National Gas Revolution" that aims to boost the country's natural gas production from 6.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2007, to 11.5 billion by 2012, the statement said.


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Michelle Obama, a voice for women in the White House

If one woman symbolizes International Women's Day for Americans, and black American women in particular, it's Michelle Obama, the successful career-woman and mother of two who six weeks ago became First Lady.
Obama, who turned 45 days before her husband Barack was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States in January, is hugely popular in the United States.
Nearly half of Americans -- 49 percent -- have a favorable opinion of her, according to a recent poll by the New York Times/CBS.

The popularity ratings of the first African-American first lady put her ahead of all of her predecessors including Hillary Clinton, who began her eight-year stay in the White House with a 44-percent popularity score, Laura Bush with 30 percent and Nancy Reagan with 28 percent.
Her youthful, striking looks and dynamism, coupled with the fact that she understands what it means to be a working mother, juggling family life with a successful career, makes it easy for many women to relate to her.

But for black women in particular, Michelle Obama's soaring popularity and high, positive visibility marks a huge step forward.
"If you think of the stereotypes of black women, they are either bossy and emasculating or sexually promiscuous, and Michelle Obama is neither of those," said Andra Gillespie, a sociology professor at Emory University in the southern state of Georgia.
"A woman who has an accessible beauty, is considered feminine and lady-like, has a husband and has kept him for more than 15 years and a husband who clearly loves her -- people are not used to seeing black women in that position," she said.
Dubbed "my rock" by her proud husband, Michelle Obama is also seen as living proof that the American dream is accessible to anyone.
Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, she grew up in a working class Chicago neighborhood as the United States embarked on some of the most tumultuous years of the civil rights movement.
The daughter of a worker at the local water treatment plant, who suffered from multiple sclerorsis, and a stay-at-home mother, Michelle Obama rose to attend two of the most prestigious US universities, Princeton as an undergraduate and then Harvard Law School.


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Former Guantanamo Detainee Bombed Iraqi Base

U.S. officials sent Abdallah Saleh Al-Ajmi from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Kuwait, where he was released. He later drove a truckload of explosives into an Iraqi army base.
The case further complicates the issue of what to do with detainees once Guantanamo closes.

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Europe Debates Asylum For Guantanamo Detainees

European leaders have welcomed President Barack Obama's decision to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. But now they are being asked to offer asylum to some of the 245 detainees.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likely will raise the issue again when she meets her European colleagues in Brussels on Thursday.
It's going to be a hard sell — even after years of discussions on the subject between the U.S. and Europe.

If returned to their homelands, the detainees could face prison or torture. Europe is considering how they would be screened and which countries would take them — and under what conditions.
Simon Koschut of the German Council for Foreign Relations says the limited number of internal borders means there would have to be a general agreement.
"Any inmate that would come to a European country could travel from one country to another without being controlled by visa regulations, so we have to find a common European position," he says.
That's the rub. Spain, Portugal, France and Italy are willing to take some detainees. Britain says it has done its part by taking in 14. But in Germany, it's an election year and politicians are divided. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union is reluctant, while the Social Democrats are more flexible.
A high-level EU delegation will go to Washington soon for more detailed information from U.S. officials.
Koschut says the Europeans will want the U.S. to open up all detainee files.
"The Americans will have to explain what kind of risks these people pose, why they can't be allowed to enter [the] U.S., why they have to go to Europe, why they can't be sent back to their home countries — and the U.S. has to sort of give a, not a guarantee but almost a guarantee, that these people do not pose a threat anymore," he says.
Other questions nagging the Europeans include who would pay for resettlement and the detainees' medical care — and whether some of them would be prosecuted or imprisoned.
Italy's leading anti-terrorism magistrate, Armando Spataro, has already singled out some inmates.

"We know of at least three Guantanamo detainees who have arrest warrants pending here," he says. "I believe the United States could simply extradite them to Italy where they would be tried in our courts."
Resettlement of former inmates raises other questions — like whether their freedom of movement should be curtailed and whether they should be put under surveillance.
Tomas Valasek of the London-based Center for European Reform, says these are serious civil liberties issues.
"If a prisoner has been absolved of all crimes, what right do the governments have to keep monitoring him? Isn't this a softer form of what the U.S. did in Guantanamo — in other words, a perpetual banishment of sorts without due trial?" he says.
Human rights organizations say Europe has a moral duty to offer asylum to Guantanamo detainees because, they claim, some governments bear responsibility by having allegedly helped transport some suspects to the U.S. prison.
But Valasek says that, in the minds of the public, anyone detained at Guantanamo is seen as a potential terrorist.

"There is political reluctance to take prisoners, whether they are safe or not. It is not a particularly popular issue in terms of domestic politics. European publics will be reluctant to take anyone who has even cast of shadow of suspicion," he says.
For years, European governments harshly criticized the existence of Guantanamo. Its closure now poses new challenges for America's allies — in the realms of international law, security and domestic politics.


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US withdraws charges against USS Cole suspect

A Pentagon judge has withdrawn charges against a Saudi detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp accused of taking part in the deadly October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.
Judge Susan Crawford, the convening authority of military commissions, "has withdrawn the charges" against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told AFP.
However Crawford "has withdrawn the charges without prejudice, meaning he can be charged again," said Jeffrey Gordon, another Pentagon spokesman.

Crawford's procedural move brings the case against Nashiri to a halt, at least temporarily, and falls in line with President Barack Obama's executive order shortly after taking office calling for a 120-day delay in proceedings against terror suspects at Guantanamo.
Nashiri's was the last Guantanamo detainee to be facing trial.
Army Colonel James Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court, had rejected Obama's request to suspend Nashiri's trial.

The Saudi national was due to be arraigned on Monday, and the Pentagon prosecutor had sought the death penalty for him.
Born in Mecca, Nashiri, 43, was accused of conspiring to help two Islamic extremists who steered an explosives-laden barge alongside the US Navy destroyer Cole, which was docked at the port of Aden, Yemen. The attackers then detonated themselves and their load.
The October 12, 2000 attack killed 17 US sailors and wounded dozens of others. The blast punched a 12-meter (40-foot) hole in the ship's side.
Nashiri was arrested in 2002, and held in a secret CIA prison for almost four years before being transferred to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Defense Department charged that Nashiri rented apartments and houses near Aden to observe the port area, and purchased the boat used in the attack.
In February, former CIA director Michael Hayden confirmed that US interrogators had secretly waterboarded Nashiri and two other detainees while he was in the spy agency's custody.
According to defense lawyers, often the whole process begins again from zero in order to avoid using documents that could show the defendant had been subjected to harsh interrogations.
Before the Pentagon withdrew charges against Nashiri, the leading US rights group American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused Defense Secretary Robert Gates of not backing the president's executive order to halt proceedings against terror suspects at Guantanamo.

"Despite President Obama's orders to close Guantanamo and halt proceedings, it appears this has not filtered down through the Department of Defense," said ACLU head Anthony Romero.
"One must question whether this is just the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, whether this is a revolt in the new Obama administration, or whether the new Secretary Gates is just like the old Secretary Gates."
Gates served as defense secretary under president George W. Bush and was retained in the post by Obama.

Last week Kirk Lippold, the commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked, condemned Obama's executive order.
Lippold, who backs Guantanamo trials and keeping alleged terrorists in the Cuba detention camp, argued that the US "shouldn't make policy decisions based on human rights and legal advocacy groups."
On Thursday he struck a more conciliatory tone, but remained critical of Nashiri's uncertain fate.
"The families have already been through enough. Don't put the families through even more of this agony," he urged.


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